>From: IN%"pcp@mailbase.ac.uk" 31-MAR-1996 10:59:51.42>Subj: How to handle a bully>>>Sy Balsen wrote, in response to messages on how to handle harassing messages >on this mailbase:>---------------------------------------------------->"I,for one, simply hit the delete key and leave his mail unread.">---------------------------------------------------->>Then Suzanne Huffman wrote:>---------------------------------------------------->"Until recently, this has been my choice -- and I mean this in terms of GAK's>corollary -- and I intend to resume this method. So Bill, flame on if it helps>you elaborate your system, but I'm not reading another single word you write.>As soon as I see your address in the header, that post is history.">---------------------------------------------------->>Then Devi Jankowicz added:>---------------------------------------------------->"Yes, the most sensible thing to do with Bill Chambers is to ignore each>item he posts.">>"Then nothing he writes will be read: even the occasional sensible mailing>which slips through his self-destructiveness.">>"I shall be returning each one directly to him unread, in the faint hope>that he reads what he's written, and reflects on it.">--------------------------------------------------->>I still have serious concerns re: etiquette on the mailbase, and even went >back to the message that gets sent to all new mailbase members when they join. > It states>--------------------------------------------------->"In addition, without the normal channels for social restraint, some members >are tempted to 'flame' those with whom they disagree - making criticisms >and personal remarks that would be unlikely to be voiced in a face-to-face >discussion. Careful and frequent attention to on-line etiquette is>required to minimise these deficits.">--------------------------------------------------->>I cite this because recently I have been wondering whether or not telephone >harassment (i.e. making recurrent intimidating and abusive calls) is free >speech the same way that mailbase harassment (i.e. sending recurrent >intimidating and abusive e-mail posts) has been dubbed free speech. Certainly >there is a good deal of subjectivity in where free speech ends and harassment >begins. I just want to raise the issue, since I think the young internet is >currently struggling to define such things more fromally, and ultimately will.>>Perhaps all this is unnecessary, because I, too, like Suzanne, Devi, and others>before them, will no longer even read any of Bill Chambers' messages. I guess>you really can't argue with a bully; his kind are indestructable, and always>have been.>>Adios, Bill. Your posts are history on my computer. Flame on, angry man, but>I'm no longer listening.>>JON RASKIN>(fondly known to friends as "Big Daddy")